Losing their religion: survey shows Dutch becoming increasingly secular

The Netherlands has become definitively secularised over the past decade, with the numbers of Catholics and Protestants in steady decline, and only Muslims remaining numerically stable, according to a new survey released just in time for Christmas.

The report by the central statistics bureau offers little prospect that Catholic churches across the country will ring with a resurgence during the Christmas season, given that only 13 per cent of the Catholics who remain attend church services, usually no more than once a month.

Overall, the figures indicate that religion for the Dutch appears to have reached a generational tipping point: with 58 per cent of those aged 15 or older saying they did not count themselves as belonging to any religion – a figure that stood at 45 per cent in 2010.

The percentage of the Dutch population who self-identify as Catholics or Protestants has fallen in both cases, and the demographics indicate that this is most likely linked to an ageing population.

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The sharpest fall was in the case of Catholics who now stand at 18 per cent, compared with 27 per cent back in 2010. Protestants stand at 14 per cent, compared with 18 per cent in 2010, a more gradual though also marked decline.

By contrast, the number of Muslims remained stable over the same decade at five per cent, and followers of Islam were also more likely to be observant – with 43 per cent attending their local mosques at least once a month, the statistics show..

Unspecified groups with “other philosophies of life”, the survey notes, represented six per cent of those questioned. Of these groups, 28 per cent regularly attend a service in a prayer house.

A further breakdown according to age provides some of the most interesting findings.

Sixty-five per cent of those over 75 describe themselves as religious. That falls to 28 per cent for 18- to 25-year-olds. However, it rises to 41 per cent for the younger age bracket from 15 to 18. In 2010, the differences between the age groups were not as accentuated.

There were also slight differences between the sexes, though the fall in religious affiliation was reflected in both.

Forty-five per cent of women identified themselves as belonging to a religion, compared with 40 per cent of men. In 2010, those figures were 57 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.

Although they are not identified in this survey, Hindus make up around 0.6 percent of the population, Buddhists 0.4 percent, and Jews, 0.1 percent, according to other statistics bureau figures.

These trends were confirmed earlier this year by the Dutch socio-cultural think-tank, the SCP, which described the Netherlands as “one of the most secular countries in Europe”, with just over half the population identifying as atheist or agnostic, compared to around 10 per cent in the US.